What Most Americans Don’t Know and Don’t Want to Know
Frank Dorrel / Addicted To War
(February 6, 2022) — My name is Frank Dorrel. Along with AK Press, I publish and distribute the popular anti-war comic book titled: Addicted to War by Joel Andreas. What Is this BIG LIE that I am talking about?
Well, it’s not Donald Trump’s False Claims that he won the 2020 election for President. He got something like seven million fewer votes then Joe Biden. And in 2016,
Trump received about three million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton did. The only people who think Trump won the 2020 election are people who voted for him. The real question is how did over 74 million people in this country vote for Trump? Especially, after he was in office for four years, pretty much lying every day.
I’m not talking about Climate-Change/Global Warming. There are millions of people who don’t believe that Climate Change is real and is now happening all over the world.
But once again, most of these are people who voted for Trump. You can go to www.addictedtowar.com/climate-change and listen to what some of the most important climate change scientists are saying about it. Not only how real it is and how destructive it is, but that it is actually happening faster than they have predicted.
I’m not talking about Systemic Racism in the United States. I think a majority of people in the US understand that not only is racism real, but it has been here from the beginning of the country. You can watch this Academy Award Winning Documentary Film by Ava DuVernay.
In recent years, with so many black people being shot and killed by the police, the group BLACK LIVES MATTER have brought much needed attention to this terrible situation.
I’m not talking about The Prison Industrial Complex, in which the United States has well-over two million people locked up in prisons. The US locks up more people per capita, than any other nation on Earth. And the majority of them are people of color. But this sad story is not really a secret to anyone paying attention to it.
I’m not talking about Poverty and Homelessness in America. More and more people in this country are losing their homes and becoming homeless or downright poor.
But this is no secret to anyone looking at and studying this very sad situation happening to millions of American people.
I’m not talking about COVID, the pandemic that has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of American people in the last two years, even as I receive emails every day from people who think we are somehow being lied to about Covid and that the vaccinations are causing harm and deaths.
And I’m not talking about the events that took place on September 11th, 2001, with The World Trade Center Towers in New York City being completely destroyed by planes crashing into them. I will make some comments about that at the very end of this article.
The BIG LIE — I am talking about has to do with US foreign policy and US wars, both overt and covert. We are not told the truth about them or that the
US is a Global Empire, which controls much of the world through force and power and threatens Third World countries, who are not willing to do as we say.
Most American people do not know these things. Most do not believe these things are true. And most people are not willing to take a closer look at all of this.
I suggest you go to my website to see what I am talking about. Go to the Film Page: www.addictedtowar.com/films and watch as many of these important anti-war films as you can. They are all on YouTube and can be watched for free. Take as long as you need.
I do not think you will find another list like this anywhere on the Internet. I have watched all of these films at least two or more times.
Every one of them is very well done and all together they reveal THE BIG LIE. These films are never aired on television. Not even on PBS anymore.
Go to the Talks and Interviews Page and watch and listen to as many of them as you can.
The very first talk is by Martin Luther King Jr. It’s titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence. Once again, take your time to watch these talks by these activists. They reveal the horrors our country has been committing all of these years with it’s many wars against innocent poor people in the world.
THE BIG LIE
I am talking about is what Martine Luther King Jr. said in his Beyond Vietnam Speech: “The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in The World Today, My Own Government”.
The Military, the Oil Companies, the Corporations, the Weapon Makers, the Bankers, the Mainstream Media & the Politicians, are known as: The Military-Industrial-Complex.
They make war for profit and also to control the resources of the World. And WE the PEOPLE are LIED to about this. One of their biggest weapons is propaganda. And they really know how to use it. It is a global battle of the rich versus the poor. And war is for the most part, racist. We bomb, invade and kill, mostly people of color.
Read this article by James Lucas titled: The United States Has Killed More than 20 Million People in 37 Nations Since WWII.
Read this article by Professor Larry Mosqueda of Evergreen State College titled: Shocked and Horrified, written on September 15th, 2001.
The mainstream media will never tell the truth about this, as they are owned by the very people and corporations who make huge profits from US wars.
Most people in the government will not talk about or look at this. If they were to do so, they would become outcasts and pariahs, shunned by others in the government.
And for the most-part, people in the military will not look at or talk about these things. However, some have spoken out. And many of them are listed on my site.
The one group who does look at this issue is the Anti-War Movement. We are part of the alternative media in this country. You can see who some of these
organizations are by going to: www.addictedtowar.com/sources-and-websites. Democracy Now!, hosted by Amy Goodman, is first on this list.
There is an anti-war movement in this country. But it’s just not big enough to make much of a difference. Most people are not taught about these things in their schools, in their churches or by their parents. And they won’t learn about THE BIG LIE by watching the mainstream news on television or by reading the mainstream newspapers.
Lewis Hill, co-founder of KPFA and Pacifica Radio.
How I Learned about the True History of US Foreign Policy
I first started learning about all of this when I discovered KPFK 90.7 FM Radio in 1980. KPFK is part of the Pacifica Network, consisting of five radio stations in this country. They are KPFA in Berkeley, KPFK in Los Angeles, WBAI in New York, WPFW in Washington DC and KPFT in Houston.
The first Pacifica station was KPFA in Berkeley. It was started in 1949, by Lou Hill, a man who refused to go to World War II. He wanted to have a station that
was against war, dealt with social injustice and had no commercial sponsors, so the truth could be told.
I discovered KPFK by chance. No one told me about it. I had a job as a driver for the University of Southern California. I drove about 200 miles a day. One day in 1980, I was turning the FM channels and heard a man named Alan Watts talking on KPFK. He was an amazing storyteller, a philosopher of sorts and very interesting to listen to. He was already dead when I started listening to him.
So every Monday at 2:00 PM, I put on KPFK. Then one Monday, I left the station on and heard Noam Chomsky talking about US supported death squads in El Salvador.
That was the beginning for me. From that time on, I listened to KPFK as much as possible. I discovered many other truth-tellers at KPFK, talking about US foreign policy, who you would never hear on the mainstream media. People like Howard Zinn, Ramsey Clark, Michael Parenti, Daniel Ellsberg, John Stockwell, Philip Agee, S. Brian Willson, Father Roy Bourgeois, Medea Benjamin, Kathy Kelly and many others. Then I discovered Blase Bonpane, who had his own weekly program on KPFK called World Focus.
I began listening to Blase every week. Soon he became my mentor. The more I learned about what the US had been doing with its foreign policy, the more upset I got.
During the listener-sponsored fund-drives, I would order books and talks by these truth-tellers. Whenever they came to Los Angeles to speak, I would go to listen to
them in person. I joined the Veterans For Peace group in Los Angeles and would go to their meetings. It was there that I met Tony Russo and learned so much about what he called “the US War in Vietnam.” Tony had been partners with Daniel Ellsberg in revealing The Pentagon Papers.
At that time, I was learning about what was happening in Nicaragua, with the US supporting the Contras and the history of US interventions there. The more I learned, the worse it got. I had no idea that my country, the United States, had been doing so many terrible things to innocent poor people all over the world.
I went to hear John Stockwell at least three times. He had been a marine and was the CIA Station Chief in Angola. The stories he told about the atrocities the CIA had been committing around the world were absolutely chilling. You can hear him giving an amazing talk in 1989 here.
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It was on KPFK that I first heard about S. Brian Willson, as he and three other veterans began their Veterans Fast for Life on the Capitol Steps in Washington DC in 1986.
They were protesting US foreign policy in Central America; in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. They fasted for something like 40 days and got a lot of attention all over the country through the Pacifica Network and the anti-war movement. I sent them a $100 donation and a letter of support. And I went on a march supporting these four veterans, S. Brian Willson, Charlie Liteky, Duncan Murphy and George Mizo — in Downtown Los Angeles and marched with a big crowd, right behind Jackson Browne and Kris Kristofferson.
On September 1st, 1987, I heard Blase Bonpane say on KPFK that Brian Willson had been run over at The Concord Naval Weapons Station in Northern California, by a train that was carrying weapons to be shipped to Central America and used to kill innocent people there.
Brian lost both legs but survived the attack. One year later, he came to Los Angeles to give a talk, which I heard about on KPFK. I went to hear him and my life was changed forever.
To this day, I have never heard anyone speak quite like Brian did that night. He was so clear with his message against the US war in Vietnam. I’ll never forget one thing he said: “How could I have gone 10,000 miles across the ocean to take part in killing people I did not know anything about”.
Brian had been a believer in that war. He was a conservative Republican, an anti-communist and an All-American young man. But he had his epiphany when he witnessed a fishing village in Vietnam that we had bombed and napalmed. He was sent to inspect the success of this mission. He saw maybe 100 people, all of them dead or dying.
No soldiers. No weapons. Only women, children and a few older men. He went to four other villages that week and observed the same thing. We were killing villagers and reporting that they were “VC” or Viet Cong.
Brian started to speak out against what he had witnessed and soon he was sent back to the States. Some years later, he became a full-time anti-war activist. Brian’s mantra is: We Are Not Worth More. They Are Not Worth Less. Everything that Brian writes about at his website is well worth reading. You can watch Brian here, here, and here.
An excellent film about Brian titled: “Paying the Price for Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson,” can be rented or bought at: www.addictedtowar.com/about-paying-the-price. I was the associate producer on this film. Brian is the last segment in my film: “What I’ve Learned about US Foreign Policy: The War Against The Third World.”
And once again, watch the films at The Film Page and the talks on The Talks & Interviews Page. In doing so, you could earn what would be like the equivalent of a PH.D in The True History of US Foreign Policy.
There is also the Book Page, which lists over 90 excellent books you can read, most on the topic of US Foreign Policy: www.addictedtowar.com/books .
How Do They Get Away with All of This?
Why Can’t Most People See These Truths?
Here is why I believe that most Americans cannot and will not see these truths that I have been talking about. THE BIG LIE is so big and so complete in the United States.
It’s like mass hypnosis. Like mass brainwashing. Like something out of the Orwell’s book, 1984. I believe the biggest tool for brainwashing is the television set that we watch.
Most Americans are taught to believe that we are The Good Guys. And once again, most people are not taught about the true nature of US foreign policy in their schools, in their churches or by their parents. And they won’t learn about THE BIG LIE by watching the mainstream news on television or by reading the mainstream newspapers.
The Following Is a Very Important Point!
Many people have lived a pretty good life here in the United States. They have had a lot of freedom and have been given a lot of opportunity to do what they want, to go for their own special dreams. Not everyone gets there, but at least, many have had that chance. This doesn’t necessarily happen if you are Black or Hispanic or Native American or poor.
And many people have had various problems fitting in our society and end up unhappy and discontented. But this is America. The Land of The Free and The Home of The Brave.
There are so many things here that people appreciate. This is certainly true in my case. And many people have come here from other countries in order to have a better life.
And ironically, many of these people have come from some of the very countries that we have attacked and invaded. We have had it good here compared to them.
But do these facts make it OK to have a foreign policy that has literally killed millions of innocent people and ruined the lives of many millions more, all for lies?
We are told that our military goes into other countries to help the people and to bring freedom and democracy. But of course, that is not what has been happening with our foreign policy. How do you help people when you invade them, drop bombs on them, send in drones to kill them, place sanctions on them and support dictators who oppress them.
Most Americans do not want to believe or to accept that our country has been doing these horrendous things and still is. And the policies of the US also has ruined the lives of millions more people all over the world. This is not what most American’s believe. It’s much easier being ignorant than it is to realize that this is happening and has been happening all along.
For those of us who have come to understand these things, it is not easy, as we learn that others do not want us to tell them about this or to try to educate them about this.
And since the vast majority of Americans do not know or believe these things, it’s very easy to dismiss those of us who do, calling us crazy or some kind of conspiracy theorists, without ever looking at the evidence we have to show them. I cannot tell you how many friends I have had in my life, who are no longer my friends. Many will not call me back or respond to emails I have sent them about this. It is an amazing thing to experience. After over 40 years of being an activist, I do understand why people do not want to know.
It’s just too painful to know. It’s simply easier not to know. Life can be hard. Life can be difficult. And it certainly is now with all that we are dealing with. But life is so much easier not having to deal with the information I have been talking about. However, by denying these truths, we unknowingly support the deaths and destruction of millions.
I do want to say that most of the people who have been involved, in one way or another, in carrying out the these barbarous acts committed by the US, are not necessarily lying.
For the most part, they are simply following orders. The soldiers follow orders. The politicians go along with what they are told. And the reporters in the mainstream media don’t really do true journalism. They get their stories from the State Department, the CIA or other government sources. They don’t investigate on their own to see if these stories are really true or not. The victims of US foreign policy are in other countries, out of sight, out of mind. And the people I have just mentioned, will not look at the information we in the anti-war movement try to give them. So the terrible, horrible and unbelievable things our country does, happens because we live THE BIG LIE here in the United States.
The Backfire Effect
Here is an article that explains why giving people the facts doesn’t always change their minds. “The Backfire Effect: Why Facts Don’t Always Change Minds.”
Take a good look at my website. If you think the information you find there is believable and worthwhile, please send this email to everyone you can. The only chance we will ever have to bring all of this to the surface, is if enough people come to understand that the things said in this email and the things that are on my website — ARE TRUE.
For anyone who is interested in my opinion on what happened on September, 11th, 2001 in New York with the collapse of The World Trade Center Towers, please send me an email to: us.addicted.to.war@gmail.com — and I will respond to you.
I want to close with something important that Blase Bonpane said back in 2009. He said: “The reason he did his anti-war work was because he wanted to stop his country (United States) from killing millions of innocent people all over the world”.
What Blase said is the very same reason why I have been doing my anti-war work all of these years. Blase was loved and respected by so many people. He died in 2019.
And I also want to thank all of the truth-tellers and anti-war activists I have mentioned in this article and who are on my website — for being my teachers,
and for continuing to do this important work. The question is how can we reach enough people to change from being a war-like country to a Peace-Like country?
Peace means that we help people in other countries and in our own country. We do not invade them, we do not bomb them, we do not starve them and we do not kill them.
If You Agree with this Message, Please Send this Article Far and Wide.
You can read the 2004 edition of Addicted to War. The 2015 edition can be purchased here.
Addicted To War is a book that most everyone (12 years and older) can read and understand. Hundreds of high school teachers and college professors have used it in their classrooms. We need to have more teachers and professors using it. When I was in high school, a book like Addicted To War could never have been used in class at all. I have read it every year since we first published it in 2002. I always think what a fantastic, one-of-a-kind book Addicted to War is.
In 2000, I put together my film compilation titled: “What I’ve Learned About US Foreign Policy: The War Against The Third World.” I updated it in 2015, adding three new segments. It can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gMGhrkoncA
Frank Dorrel is the publisher of Addicted to War, associate producer of Paying the Price for Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson, producer of What I’ve Learned About US Foreign Policy, and a member of Veterans For Peace. He can be reached at: PO Box 3261, Culver City, CA 90231. (310) 838-8131 or by email at: us.addicted.to.war@gmail.com and frank.dorrel@gmail.com
